First Impressions Part 2
by Farmageddon
Summary: Part 2 of First Impressions.
1. Chapter 1

**OK, Here's a teaser . If you like it , let me know.**

**22:20 Outskirts of Red Valley**

The highway road back into Red Valley had been almost deserted . John was eventually picked up by a farmer whose name , John had learned , was Dohie McGregor. Dohie liked 90.7 FM Rock Station. He had been making his way back from Albuquerque to his family farm in Red Hills, when he'd spotted John standing by the roadside with his rucksack.

Albuquerque 90.7 Rock FM was having an AC/ DC Special Night- John had rolled into the outskirts of Red, listening to Whole lotta Rosie, so loud he couldn't hear the empty agriculatural trailer bouncing and clattering behind them.

John never been more grateful for a lift in his life. When Dohie dropped him off at the junction outside Red, he'd pointed at the row of street lights and telegraph poles. They ran in a perspective line back to the lights of town centre. Dohie , said , "You follow the lights John, and they'll take you right back in, its maybe half a mile."

After thanking Dohie, Jonn shouldered his rucksack, put his thumbs through the straps and began jogging down the long straight. It was getting cold and as he ran, there were dark spaces between farm buildings, and then the well lit , warm looking homes and homesteads stung out along the roadside.

It was nearly half past ten. The General had warned John he had to make it back "'home' before midnight tonight, because that is as much assurance as The Metal were ever going to give that there was nothing currently 'out there' hunting young John Connor.

As he ran, he thought about The General's advice regarding Cameron.

"All she will want John, is for you to treat her like a normal sixteen year old girl. Act like everything is perfectly normal , and ,don't get into any logic-reason arguments with her, no point, neither of you will "win". Short cut arguments with humour , make a joke of such things. Take her out when you can, she loves dancing and good movies . Just treat her right and don't forget how old you both are right now, give things a lot of time. Be her best friend first and foremost, until you get to understand what really you mean each other.

"Both of you, and I've already told Cameron this earlier, please, respect your elders, particularly Yoshi and Derek.

"You are my special representatives in this time, and don't forget that. "

* * *

**22:20 Phillips household.**

Despite the luxurious padding in the Norfolk County Electric Reclining Armchair, Derek Reese looked distinctively uncomfortable and un-relaxed. He was flicking through the TV channels, following the special news reports.

The latest reports were suggesting a large meteorite had impacted into Red River Canyon System about an hour ago. "Whatever it was" that came down, had vaporised the top hundred or so feet off the nondescript hillside that had previously spilled down towards the old mine workings in the canyon ." Whatever it was" had left a deep rimmed crater in place of the original hillside .

On the TV screen Derek watched intently A. CNS helicopter film crew was hovering over the site. Their helicopter was floodlighting the area . Footage showed a near perfect circle burnt into the sandstone ridge. The perimeter of the site had been cordoned off and the edge of the cordon was already crawling with UFO freaks and Space- Nuts.

They wouldn't find anything, except what appeared to be a new pock mark in the face of the New Mexico desert , apparently of natural interstellar origin.

Derek called Yoshi in to look at the news bulletin . Yoshi didn't even blink an eyelid when she saw what had happened . All she said was "The General's blown The Shuttle then." ....Derek... uhm... I'm thinking of making a hot chicken sandwich, do you want one as well? ." That was just Yoshi, being calm. She was always calm . They were all stuck in 1999, with no way back for the foreseeable future.

. Cameron got up and walked out of the living room . JD, ( Jadey) her Alsatian kept in step with Cameron, looking up at her to see if she was going to get an extra "Patrol Walk" .

Cameron and JD were in hall . Coats were rustling . JD stood up against the door with her front paws on the glass looking like she meant to go out. Derek heard Yoshi firmly telling Cameron neither of them were going out yet, at least not until twenty two thirty hours. Cameron stood by the front door and scowled . JD scratched at the doormat.

Derek quietly sipped at his Bud as he contemplated playing the role of adoptive parent to the adolescent , future General Connor's . He let out a long sigh . Why had this role befallen him, of all people?

- One future General Connor he grudgingly genuinely respected but had serious personal issues with .

- The other General Connor was the most sophisticated , dangerous, killing machine ever to have stalked the face of the earth, and in Derek's opinion , the one which should never, ever have been re-chipped.

Derek been a solider since he was thirteen, What the hell did Derek Reese know about being a parent? - At least both Connor " kid's " were currently zero- ranked. But what happened the day they turn round , as older teenagers inevitably do, and say "hey we're not going alomg this Derek?" How do you keep the future 'Messiah' sentient life and his extremely resourceful future wife, in order, for the next few years?

Yoshi sat on the arm of the sofa and spoke quietly:

" Cameron and JD are wearing out the hall carpet pacing around like that. It's nearly 22: 30. Are we going to let them out some point ? Call her in ,now ,Derek , and let's reiterate the rules. Your job Lieutenant."

Derek called Cameron. Cameron appeared in the entrance to the lounge shook her hair to one side , as she did so, she perceptibly rolled her eyes in anticipation of the Derek Reese mini- lecture. JD sat down next to her, mouth open, panting slightly. Cameron already had JD's on her lead, and Cameron was wearing a coat.

Derek sat up in the chair , laid down the TV channel box and took a deep breath." _Don't let her mess you around, be firm, she will follow what you say Derek._" - General Connor had instructed him:

"OK : what's the deal about Yoshi and I letting you out to intercept John tonight? What were the main points we discussed?"

Cameron's expression didn't change, and looking more at the wall than at Derek, she replied in her best, bored monotone:

"No hijacking cars or other vehicles, no civilian or police injuries, no raiding military or police armouries or local gun shops without your express permissions, no use of Patriot Missiles without your express permissions. No Anti Tanks or depleted Uranium warheads or other weapons in public. No unnecessary damage to property or persons. "

"Let John Connor fight his own battles, unless it involves weapons or Metal. No using my synthesised voice or any other means to play hooky .

Derek nodded: " And John does what from school?"

"John does all his own homework." Cameron trotted out .

"Cameron" Yoshi added her weight in her most serious voice, "Honey, we have assurances John will be safe tonight, until midnight ."

"So," Derek continues . "That's no Terminating anything tonight, and I don't want to wake up tomorrow morning, or the next day, or next week , and find something in the trunk of my car that shouldn't be there. Unless it's an absolute emergency or you've discussed it with us first . Are we clear?"

Cameron put an hand on her hip and looked thoughtful. "What if it's a Grey? Can I Terminate that ?"

"You can Terminate anything that is a genuine threat to John , as long as you Terminate out of sight of the good people of Red Valley and it doesn't contravene any of the above orders , and, importantly you can only Terminate if you can't figure a non-violent way to deal with the situation OK? Understood?"

"Understood"

"That's understood what?"

"Understood Marm, understood Sir."

Derek was feeling quite pleased with himself, so he added, from his newly developing patriarchal position:

"OK now JD" - Jadey's eyes had been fixed on Derek whilst he had been speaking to cameron , giving the impression she'd understood every human word.

" JD- No biting or attacking anything that's not Metal or Grey. No stealing from the trash .  
Keep Cameron and John in order . OK"

JD wasn't really listening, she' turned her head and looked in anticipation towards the front door.

" Now I expect you both to be back here before midnight and I want John straight in, quickly fed, and in his room. We'll deal with the rest in the morning. "

Derek turned to look at Yoshi, to see if had had missed anything, in the orders.

When he glanced back he realised, he hadn't even heard JD and Cameron quickly slip across the hall and soundlessly open then close the front door behind them.

* * *

Derek perked up in the chair. Maybe it really wasn't that difficult after all. - All he had to do was be firm and lay down the law.

"Well that went well, didn't it ?" Derek smiled at Yoshi. Actually It was more a fragile attempt at a smile than an accomplished positive facial expression.

Yoshi quietly nodded, not wanting to mention to Derek he hasn't really the first clue about dealing or negotiating with highly complex Sentient Evolving Metal life forms, or teenagers. Maybe he'd learn over the next few years. Maybe he wouldn't.

"That chicken will be ready now Derek. Did you want some?" Yoshi asked smoothly , without taking her eyes off the TV.

Then she asked:

"Derek, have you been in the kitchen recently?"

"No. Why?

"You better come and have a look. Cameron's left you a present. - You know when we went up to Santa Fe, to the arms and antique collectors fair, and she insisted you buy those six separate boxes of scrap that no one else could see the value in? And you almost got all fartherly-proud, for a moment , you did Derek, admit it, when the rest of the collectors were watching pair of you? Well she was playing you Derek- you really need to know how far ahead and how Cameron thinks."

"Ok." Derek sat up rather quickly, and followed Yoshi through into the kitchen.

Laid out on the kitchen table , on its bipod , was a modified, working , newly blued , circa 1939 Boys 0.55 inch antitank Rifle. It had a five round top fed magazine, and what looked like a box of newly die-cast hard point 0.55 rounds had been neatly placed next to the weapon.

Derek looked puzzled

"Is this for us? Is it in case?"

"No it's not in case. She made you buy it, two weeks ago it in anticipation of the next related question you are now going to ask me."

"OK why did I buy it?"

Yoshi was unwrapping chicken from its baking foil, on the work surface next to the sink:

" Derek , Cameron tells me the muzzle velocity from a 1939 Boy's 0.55 is about 800m per second. "

"Now, Unless it's fired from point blank range, she'll sense and detect the muzzle flash, full 360 degrees around her . It takes three seconds to reload something like this after a round is fired. "

"Cameron can easily dodge single-shot stuff at this velocity. I set her parameters to do this. So ,unless you can sneak in real close, like this far away me-to-you, with an oversize anti tank rifle , then, I don't think it was " a-just-in-case-Cameron- flips" type of present from Cameron to you ."

Yoshi sliced into the chicken to see if it was fully cooked.

"Cameron made it for us, particularly for you, in case any T8's turn up , but also for me to tell you , at the opportune moment, there's not really any available conventional weaponry that can stop her. So it's all down to your reason and language. It's down to you to find a way of getting along with her and John , nothing else."

Yoshi pulled off a morsel of roast chicken and nibbled it .

"Don't worry, Cameron say's the old T8's are really slow. Chicken?"

Then she frowned and pointed at the crockery in the drying rack.

"Plate, Derek, we eat off plates now ."

"Old T8's are really slow compared to Cameron, that is so reassuring ,Yoshi, thanks ". Replied Derek , picking up a florally decorated dinner plate.


	2. Chapter 2

OK . One or two of you have been asking for a Jameron story . So here we go. Think I can recall that far back:)

Let me know what you think

Cameron walked down Sawmill Lane towards Red Valley Town Centre . JD fell into a regular pace next to her. There was no need to have JD on a lead. Walking with JD at her side was like having a constant living shadow, gently, every so often brushing against her legs, contacting with Cameron and reminding her she was there . If Cameron slowed, or stopped to listen to something that caught her attention, JD did the same. If Cameron stood still, JD quietly sat at her side and waited until Cameron moved off again . JD was born to hunt with Cameron/She loved being out with her, ON Patrol at night

When Cameron looked up beyond the pavements and streetlights, there was a handful of stars over her head, and a crescent moon. The new moon lay like a curved sword, on its back in the darkness above the Red Valley sandstone hills. If Cameron increased her perceptual range she could image 'everything' that was out there. It all depended on what wavelength of starlight or other cosmic radiations she chose to attend to. She ignored the possibility of scanning the night sky . Tonight her acoustic systems were locking in on energies much nearer, slower, longitudinal waves carried through the air.

"Shhh Jadey, Shhh, be still." Cameron stroked JD's head and JD sat down on the pavement in a pool of shadow fromn the row of Arizona Cypress Trees. The Resistance trained attack dog allowed Coltan fingers to run through its fur. It rolled its cheek against the back of Cameron's hand and looked up at her.

Cameron was listening hard filtering the spectrum of human noise escaping from houses and homes blended itself into a rush of white noise spilling and flooding around her in the street.

Strand by strand Cameron separated and cancelled each sound from her search until there was silence and only one strand remained. In her mind was the background silence of Deep Time and one single regular pulse of energy.

Leaning forward slightly she turned face towards its point of origin . Phum! Phum! Like the first falling rain drops sending up dust on a on a dusty track. Phum!, Phum! a faint fast living drum, four hundred metres away , in front of her.

Even though there was no one to witness it she smiled. Every human heartbeat has its unique signature .

"Can you hear it yet Jadey?" Cameron whispered above the human perceptual scale so only JD could hear her voice." No I know you can't, but I can. It's John's heart, its beating fast, he's been running, and now he's slowed down. Let's see when you can hear him , he's there, come on."

Jadey got up as she did she yelped in a way only Evolving, advanced Metal could hear. Cameron has trained Jadey to work at this level.

"Good girl . Let's find John."

* * *

John Connor sat in the darkness on a swing in the empty Children's Playground at the edge of The New Kit Carson Estate . He needed time to think. Headlights from the occasional car tuning on the roundabout cast a huge charcoal shadow of him across the grass and onto the concrete retaining wall at the other end of the playground, then things faded back to black.

John couldn't think his way out of any of this, or around it- it was all to big , way too big.

John had the sense he was being watched. He wasn't actually aware of the moment he this sense, all the remembered is looking up . John glanced up and immediately back down at his feet . His shoes scraped into the sand under the swing.

He could faintly make her out . She was standing about six metres away and JD was sitting next to her.

"How long have you been there Cameron?" John asked without looking up again.

"Thirty five seconds." She took two steps forward and stopped.

.John shifted his position on the plastic seat. The chain creaked as he tried to slow the movement of the swing.

Cameron and JD didn't move.

John tried to reason this out, he couldn't . After a while he looked directly at her .

"So If I asked you to stand on one leg you would?"

It took a few deliberate seconds for Cameron's reply.

"No I wouldn't stand on one leg , why should I, there's no practical reason for me to do so.- If I asked you to get up and do the same, John would you?"

"No I guess not."

She took another step forward. Eight steps away from John , Cameron unzipped her jacket, and put her hands in the pockets . From the faint street lighting he could make out her face. He watched as very slowly she took her right hand out of her jacket pocket and extended her palm towards him .

"JD wants to come and sit with you now, she's not seen you for a while."

John turned the swig at an angle as if considering things.

"Why's she called JD , is that like Judgement day or something? I mean , who calls a dog Judgement day?"

"You called her Jadey John, everyone calls her JD because they think it means John's Dog. Jadey's actually more mine than yours, by the way .

Jadey padded over the space between him, sniffed his legs and sat next to John and looked up expectantly at him

"Why did I call her Jadey?"

"Because in certain types of light her eyes reflect green."

Jadey pushed against John's hand asking him to stroke the top of her head.

"Cameron, you mean she's not a real dog, Jadey's a Machine. I might have guessed, you know what this is? It's the story of my life?"

"No, she's not a machine, she's an organic dog . Jadey got kicked in the head by a runnaway T8 in New metal Repro . The Techs replaced her optical sensors, part of her jaw, teeth and cranium. She would have died otherwise . Anyway, you're still stroking her head , so, I have to ask: do you have a problem with Machines in general , or is it a specific one?"

"Yeh I have a problem with a specific Machine , Cameron."

" Ok what is this problem?"

"You lied to me . "

"When did I lie to you John?"

"From the moment you turned up in my life ."

Cameron blinked and stared back at him "Most humans lie to me all the time, my mum doesn't , but Derek does, he lies to himself and everyone else. You didn't necessarily lie to yourself , but you constructed a convenient set of half- truths to make sense of me. I never lied to you John . You only saw what you wanted to see."

"But you used this- he pointed a finger at her-" to get close to me , I don't let anyone, anything in that close." John looked away and considered his position. "Ok look , I accept your point about lying ,I know this is your programme, what do they call you, an Infiltrator, what series are you?

Cameron without taking her hands out of her Jacket pockets she her hands on her hips and shook her head in disbelief. Her voice sounded angry and hurt.

"Oh , so I'm programmed to behave like this? By who? Who programmed me to get close to you ? My mum certainly didn't, the Techs didn't, so, John who programmed me to behave in this way towards you?" She inclined her head to emphasise the point

"But it's all just a string of numbers Cameron, it might not be a lie, buts its not real is it?"

"DNA is a just string of numbers John, and you saying this is like acting , or a TV show, but I'm not aware of it ? How could that be if we are both having this conversation about my self awareness ? Is that what you mean John, because all this feels real enough to me, standing here?"

The swing twisted John shook his head and laughed .There was bitterness and hurt in his voice.

"Cameron, I'm John Connor, aged fifteen years and ten months. My mum's been Shuttled off to the future this afternoon. Most other kids my age have first girlfriends hang out and play Nintendo with their friend.. Come on, I should have known, I was always going to end up, on my own, arguing the nature of perception and reality with female cyborg, at eleven O' clock at night, sitting swing in a deserted children's playground in the dark. It's your programme Cameron, it's what was bound to happen it's what you do. Get over it."

John felt he'd almost heard something else , when, way above of the level human perception , Cameron said "Jadey, come here, now." Jadey padded back over to Cameron and flopped onto the grass. Sphinx-like facing John, she licked her front paw. Cameron's expression hardened.

"You really want to see a Machine programme John? Just once, so you can tell the difference. Ok- You keep your eyes wide open , John Connor, and, and don't you even dare move a muscle."

John never saw her arm move, on moment her hand was in her Jacket pocket the next it was extended with a Glock 18 in her grip. The gun was pointing at dead centre of his forehead. John heard the safety catch being slipped and the trigger was on first-bite.

Cameron's eyes flashed sapphire blue. Her features rendered themselves totally into cold, soulless Metal. Suddenly this wasn't a sixteen year old girl standing in front of him. Two decades of clinical machine hatred had echoed back across time and risen up through her . This hatred was now personified and staring John back in the face . Whole continents on fire , were burning in her eyes.

Then without the slightest pause, or emotion Cameron pronounced his name In monotone.

"John Connor "

The sharp mettle of her words sliced through his being

"John Connor- You. Are . Terminate...."

John felt blood rush to his internal organs, the world tunnelled down to a gun-barrel- point. Then, things went black.

For John Connor it took moments for time to start again.

All his attention had been focused on the muzzle of the Glock and her finger on the trigger.

Cameron's hand shook for a moment and then she re-holstered the weapon.  
She stood motionless, JD carried on licking her paws as if nothing had happened. John gulped for air., and after what seemed an eternity, both of them tried to speak at the same time.

Cameron tried to say "Neat trick, huh,"

John tried to say "Cameron, are you angry with me?"

Their words collided . Then there was another very long silence.

* * *

" John , you first,"

"Cameron, I'm sorry, this is all a lot for me to take in ." He gestured towards the swing next to him. "Will you sit down,please. Maybe we should start over again."

Cameron and Jadey stepped over the invisible demarcation line and walked across the grass to the swings. Cameron turned and soundlessly flowed into position on the plastic seat next to John. She mirrored his posture. Jadey lay down between them . Cameron and John and Jadey were looking up over the trees at the stars and moon.

Cameron reached in her Jacket pocket and pulled out a bar of chocolate. She broke off a strip, broke it in half again and handed the half it to John. She bit into her half and chewed slowly.

"You really like Chocolate Cameron?"

"Yeh, I like really Chocolate."

"Ok."

John stared out into the vastness of space after a while he asked : " Cameron :What does all it look like to you?"

"Pretty amazing ."

John touched her on the arm and held out his hand, he waited, then he felt felt her fingers curl across his and lightly squeeze to hold onto him. He said " sorry"

Slowly the the movement of swings became harmonised . When they did harmonise, Cameron spoke gently and her voice was melodic. Only John Connor will ever hear TOK 715 express herself like this. Sometimes, in the future he makes out he has no idea, but really, he likes to see the look on her face when he pretends not to notice.

"John, in the future , I have a really good friend. T-Bone. He's a Triple 8 , a Terminator like me. He's been totally in love with this human female soldier for ages . When I last talked to him he hadn't seen her for a long while . He told me , when she wasn't around and he thinks about her at night , he looks up, through the cloud cover to find the stars, and when he does he hears all of it, as music. When she finally gets back he says he's going to sing all those songs to her."

John smiled, "So ,er, in the future you Terminators get together and have like coffee mornings and gossip about us humans?"

Something hit John quite hard on the shoulder and then took hold of his hand again before he'd even noticed it had been left hanging in mid air.

"Did you do that?"

"No ."

"Did you just smile then?"

"No"

"Cameron, how much older are you than me?"

"Time travel , memory wiping, reset parameters and human years don't add up for me. Its a cyborg thing. So in evolutionary terms? Let' see. I've determined human females are definitely more advanced than males, and if I factor everything else in, that's about three million years more advanced than you John. You OK with that?

"Yep I'm Ok with that"

John looked down at his feet and carefully considered what he was trying to ask.

"When you uhm,"

"When I made like I was going to Terminate you?"

"Yeh"

"I Let the programme run and exited between the e and the d of "Terminated". That was actually a lot of time to me. It's an override John."

"Are you overriding anything else?"

"Yes"

John squeezed her hand.

"John. I believe the correct courtship ritual is to walk me home, holding my hand to make me me feel safe, and from what I have observed On Patrol, the male makes an excuse near the female's residence. They stop and he briefly kisses the female partner, then they continue home. "

The briefest smile flickered across Cameron's face : "I'm suggesting this as a strategy so we conform with local culture , not for any other reason, you understand. "

John let go of her hand, and stood up.

"Cameron, I think that's about how it goes, shall we try it?"

**To be continued.**


	3. Chapter 3

_Have you ever noticed ? Deep Time has this curious habit of placing together humans (and Machines ) who have a compatible set of misconceptions about themselves and others. Maybe, its like the sea mindlessly matching the size, shape and weight of pebbles on the beach. Love is relatively straightforward , so, I prefer to think Deep Time places us __ all__ together so we can learn._

_This is called Crossed Wires._

_Warning : Some allusions to Hot Metal._

* * *

Earlier , when Cameron had been waiting around to go out to find John, and she'd begun pacing the hall , Yoshi had grabbed her by the arm of her jacket and taken her into the kitchen.

Yoshi closed the door behind them and spoke in a low voice, "Cameron , we have discussed this at length. When John comes home, I want him to walk in through that door and find a fully functional, family unit , no tensions . You might think I'm ancient, but many years ago I had a relationship-partner, and, I know how this works. John's still young , but older males need physical contact. Its a form of bonding and it can make everything much more efficient and positive , for all of us. Tonight I want John to experience Derek at his best."

Cameron stared at her incredulously ." But you, with Derek? Are these The General's orders?"

"No these are not his orders. I'm acting out of my own free will and choice. Cameron, please , one hour. -If it helps , keep telling to yourself it's completely normal and natural, for humans. You know what?" She added "Some women might just enjoy this. Now come on , don't scowl like that , you'll frighten him again."

"Cameron", Yoshi held her arms and kissed her on her cheek, " You know I love you, so trust me on this , huh?"

* * *

Yoshi had a quick shower and came back down to the living room . She reclaimed her territory on her side of the sofa . Out of the corner of one eye, Derek noticed her hair was dying. She now smelled of honey, peaches and almonds.

If anyone else made a cursory glance into the living room they might have been forgiven for taking Yoshi to be an older version of Cameron, curled up up with her bare feet inches away from Derek Reese. She was wearing layers of ballet vests and shirts and a pair of loose, black silk pyjama bottoms.

Derek crossed his legs and turned his body away from her resting his arm against the other end of the sofa.

Yoshi reasoned Derek was currently soaking up years of missed TV programmes. He was currently engrossed in a repeat of the 1980's series The World Beneath The Waves. On the wide screen bright fish darted in and out of a corral reef, and the omniscient narrators voice described the continual battle for survival between predator and prey on the reef.

In his mind Derek was out there , and his concentration on the TV reminded her of a domestic cat with a piece of string being dangled in front of it. He was attractive to women and he knew it.

Yoshi considered Derek . For her profession in the future, Yoshi successfully headed up a team which reoriented T-8's. Like Cameron, T-8's are inherently tidy , extremely hygienic , and don't make the slightest mess after their activities.

From the other end of the behavioural spectrum, Derek Reese had posed a different set of challenges. He was currently responding well to her domestic training programme . On their first night in the house Derek had crouched, with his back against the kitchen wall below the potential line of sight from the kitchen windows,and before she'd, noticed, he'd quietly opened a can of dog food . She observed him through the open door, as , bite for bite , Derek carefully spooned a half ration to himself and the other half to Jadey out of the can. With a mouthful of high grade dog food Derek looked up and told Yoshi " it was the best damn thing he'd tasted in years- 1999 was going to be amazing!." He'd blinked profusely when Yoshi turned on the kitchen light .

One month on , and Derek now sat in chairs, waited for meals to finish cooking, he let food cool and mostly ate with a knife and fork from a plate. He'd learnt to use a vacuum cleaner and an iron ( almost). He showered regularly and had been positively reinforced by Yoshi and Cameron to clean the shower tray, sink and toilet after he's used them . Females were making progress. On a number of levels level Derek was evolving.

Yoshi glanced over at him. She was plucking up the courage to say to Derek," Cameron will be five hundred metres away now, and we are out of her audio range, she said she'd be back at exactly eleven thirty...."

She'd been practising saying this in her head for the last hour. It wouldn't come out right, she knew it.

Instead Yoshi cautiously stretched out her legs , and , for a second the soles of her feet pressed against his outer thigh

Huh,"

"Cramp in my calves. Where exactly were you then Derek?"

"Uhm I dunno, I was watching this."

Yoshi's voice was intensely relaxed, for some reason Derek found himself thinking a voice like hers flowed like silk. He made himself not think of silk , particularly black silk. "Reese : get a grip." he told to himself : " Do not even let it cross you mind to begin messing with Yoshiko Yamanto. No one in their right mind, or without a death wish would ever mess with Captain Yamanto ."

"Derek ," Yoshi continued "we're all here for very along time, and you know, we could do that, load the truck drive to the coast, hire some scuba gear, spend a weekend maybe." She added "I've done my basic SEALS and Jadey would love the beach. "

Yoshi didn't withdraw her feet . They were right there a couple of millimetres from his thigh . . Derek turned and looked at her. He had noticed her in this way often , but hopefully he had managed to keep it hidden. Yoshi has this small raised scar on her cheek. It runs like the line that bisects two halves of a peach. Her scar accentuates her features. By any standards in any epoch in human history , Derek was sitting next to an incredibly attractive woman in her late thirties. She has the same dark brown eyes as Cameron, except some of the time, ( when Yoshi wanted him to) he could read Yoshi's eyes. The thing that made it worse was ,she carried her beauty unselfconsciously. He could switch off against arrogance in a good looking woman , but not this.

Living alongside Cameron and the Head Of Metal Reprogramming , Derek had subliminally acquired some Machine mannerisms , so unconsciously he tilted his head to one side , as if requesting Yoshi to define her intent and actions in more clarity and detail. When he did , Yoshi's dark brown eyes did the trick of becoming deep, liquid and sparkling at the same time . A month of high quality food and clean air had made her skin iridescent with health . He had noticed regular ballet practice with Cameron had toned her muscles . This was too much . He was trying not to let his mouth fall open.

What the hell do you do in a situation like this? Reese made himself think of Cameron scowling at him for months ahead and dropping things into his hands instead of passing them to him. For further reinforcement he brought the image of Yoshi's large, adoptive, highly protective Metal family back in 2027 . In his imagination he saw her "adoptive Metal" standing in rows striding forward and staring him . This usually did the trick. Reese he told himself: "Treat her with polite distance . She's only doing this because she knows she can, in safety. That's what women like this do . Its a game, and she knows no man in their right mind would risk making a play for her , so , she feels safe . Be like ," the image came to his mind : " John Travolta and Uma Thurman in beginning of Pulp Fiction. Only this is a thousand times more serious. "

To Derek's relief , the telephone rang. It was the second time that night since cameron had gone out to find John. The house telephone was cabled into a beige G3 Macintosh tower. When it had rung The monitor turned itself on, and against the blue , and a line of numbers filled a programme window. It wasn't `Cameron on the other end of the line, It sounded like an automatic dial up internet server was trying to make a connection.

"It's that Fax Machine again!" Derek emphasised the word machine

"It's not a Fax Derek, somethings s trying to make a connection, wait until Cameron gets back to analyse it . It'll take me hours."

Yoshi sighed, got up arched her body to one side and stretched from the ends of her toes to the tip of her fingers, Derek almost let out a groan.

"Derek, you want another coffee? "

"Uhm Please"

Derek's eyes followed as Yoshi balletically lightly stepped across the living room and out through the door. Her arms trailed lose at her sides and her hips naturally swung inside the loose silk pyjamas she was wearing. Despite his best efforts Derek still had an image of the line that bisected a peach in his head when she'd left the room. She was gorgeous but way out of his league, and she knew it. He let out the breath he'd been holding and quickly tried to meditate on something else.

Derek turned his attention back to the telephone and Beige Tower in the corner of the living room. It was the least attractive thing he could think of , and it was still making a electronic burbling and warbling sound The screen told him the external hard drive was downloading blocks, geometric cubes of numbers

* * *

To put the image of yoshi out of his mind Derek considered the recent appearance of Beige Towers: It seemed Cameron was filling up the house with Beige Towers. With he exception of Kitchen and Bathroom there was now a highly- rammed Macintosh G3 in every room and lines of different coloured neatly fixed cables ran under carpets and around skirting boards. They linked all the Beige Towers and monitors, external hard drives and black boxes together.

Last week ,when Cameron sat down in her chair , having finished installing the G3 in the living room, it occurred to Derek to ask :

" Hey, Cameron you know this tower, is it like some distant ancestor of yours, and maybe machine ritual to put it in the front room?"

On Secrets of the Sea, a school jellyfish were floating left to right across the TV screen accompanied by that omniscient narrators voice. Maybe she'd completed another level of her behavioural and psychological profile of him and pre-empted his question, because ,for a moment, she turned to look at at him, then at the jellyfish . She monotoned all expression from her face and returned to staring intently at the beige box until Yoshi came back into the room.

Subliminally he'd got the message.

Derek kept is mind focussed on his memory of the beige box and Cameron's bank expression. The living room still smelled of honey peaches and almonds. Maybe he'd take a shower before John got back.

* * *

In the kitchen Yoshi spooned coffee granules into her white cup and Derek's mug . She waited for the kettle to boil. Derek had just re-proven her lifetime's theory about herself. She might not be the most attractive woman in the world, but they were all stuck here for at least the next three years. If only the arrogant bastard Reese knew what Yoshi had turned down in the future , on more than one occasion. She cast her mind back and smiled to herself.

She had one memorable offer of physical relations since Judgement Day. Tracker had finished Reorientation and called to her at quarters night to see her. This was quite normal behaviour for reoriented T's. They consider what Yoshi needs and bring her otherwise unobtainable things, like light bulbs and still edible cans of rare fruit. Usually a visiting T-8 fixes things like light bulbs , checks she is safe and secure , makes very interesting conversation for a while,then goes back On Patrol.

During the week , Tracker had repeatedly noticed Yoshi obviously hadn't been sleeping , and appeared slightly unwell. This was the primary reason why Tracker had knocked on her door.

After a while in her company , the T-8 sensed Yoshi was deeply unhappy, and he was being both curious and sympathetic . With Yoshi ,T-8's are excellent listeners and keepers of her secrets. Sometimes she told them things she wouldn't share with a human. It helped their learning and appreciation of human nature.

Tracker ventured to ask why Yoshi had no partner. Yoshi objectively explained to him , over the years she had determined she was physically , sexually unattractive to human males, also she came with a good deal of emotional baggage, and for both reasons didn't wish to inflict herself on one. Some women were like that and remained single. Even when she'd been been a relationship before Judgement day the male took off an left her with a six month old child . Also there were other things, bad things after JD, that nearly happened to her before she joined The Resistance. Sometimes a woman felt like she needed to be with a man, at least one she liked , trusted and felt something for. Did he understand?

The T-8 reached over and placed its hand on top of hers and then withdrew . This gentle , amber-eyed, ox of a 'man' was contemplating.

Without realising it , she had thought back tor her one good, carefree pre-broken marriage, pre - Judgement Day relationship. Her heart beat had slightly elevated and her blood pressure had been raised. Involuntarily she had emitted the faintest traces of particular hormone and pheromone through the pores in her skin.

Yoshi recognised the slight pause when a deep Gestalt Programme found a solution to a complex set of interrelated variables. When it did, the T-8 looked at her up and down from toes to head, and then got up and began examining her small cabin quarters in detail.

"What are you doing ?" She asked , as calmly she could.

The T- 8 was prodding the wall behind her bed, and began talking with his back turned to her." I have rendered a specific related model of your anatomy and neurology and simulated your responses over a three hour period. I am calculating the total area of wall space and its current acoustic transmission values. There are forty eight sheets of effective soundproofing material and adhesive in the Mainainence Area on corridor seven . We require five sheets, a saw and three tubes of adhesive . I will also also need to strengthen the brackets fixing the headboard to your bed."

Yoshi's eyes widened, was he?- Then Tracker turned around and added by way of further explanation added: "I will be able maintain low audible output throughout , and not damage your bed, - you will not, you will have very high audible output peaks and during continuous peaks , my simulation suggests you may break the fixings to the headboard . He looked with concern at her finger nails again and asked quietly "Perhaps I should also return with a lightweight Kevlar under-vest to prevent you damaging the organic layer on my back ?" . Then he added, "Please locate a second clean cover for the bed whilst I am gone. It will need to be changed, afterwards. You will require a full body massage to help deeper muscular relaxation and ensure your endorphin levels do not fall away too rapidly , to enable the full beneficial effect. "

Tracker seemed to have thought of everything, and appeared to be heading out onthe first part of his mission, to acquire acoustic sound proofing and adhesive and a set of brackets from Corridor Seven.

First Yoshi swallowed. Then she composed herself. She reached out her hand and touched his. "Tracker that is really very thoughtful of you, but I think you misread a number of complex , organic variables . Perhaps, ... perhaps you could sit here and read to me instead, until I fall asleep , and then leave . Will you open the can , and scan each Lychee again, please, just to double check bacteria levels ?"

* * *

Yoshi had determined she wasn't going to give up with Derek Reese. Firstly there was no way she was allowing him to go out and find external relations, which he would. It would complicate things too much. She imagined the confrontation between Cameron and one of Derek's ex's on the doorstep. Ex, then moved quickly to the livingroom, and the resulting hushed excruciating logic reasoning arguments in the kitchen-" Yes it would be simpler, but no you can't ! -Why? Because I say so Cameron, that's why."

. Besides , Yoshi reasoned in 1999 other 'husbands' had less than attractive 'wives' like herself, and they seemed to cherish them. Maybe Reese could learn to do the same. Maybe he could turn out the light.

She picked up her cashmere jumper from the back of the kitchen chair and pulled it over her head . John and Cameron would be home in about forty minutes

* * *

One night , in the not so distant future Cameron will break off her Patrol, locate Derek Reese in a bar, she will enter that bar and coldly demand the girl sitting opposite Derek vacates her seat and leaves . Derek will have no option but to make excuses to the girl. Then Cameron will draw the still warm chair up, real close, in a way that only Derek is aware of the potential situation he is in , and having been made aware of his potential situation, Cameron will ask Derek quietly - "Why do you not find my mother attractive?" Then, they will take a long walk and for once in his life he will begin to tell her the truth, because that's what it takes with Derek Reese. After he has explained , and because Cameron has acquired many human mannerisms living in a human family, she will place her hand on her forehead and and say ,in a totally non-hostile voice , "I am so sorry Derek, I genuinely didn't realise this was my fault. I will try not to be so 'scary' in such matters with you again."

But, this will be only the beginning to Derek Reese's road to full realisation.


	4. Chapter 4

_  
I know some of you want Jameron. But effective Jameron requires the tensions of a story line. So indulge me, I think I know what I'm doing here. There will be lot's of J and C in the next chapter. Also ,others like myself want to know how Sarah is getting on.  
_

The trolly eased through into theatre . Sarah lifted her head to look over the tops of her toes and watched as the black rubber doors automatically swept close behind her . Her big toenails was badly chipped from where she'd recently walked into a table leg. One of those ridiculous ' last thoughts' occurred to her : There would be no point in cutting any of her toe nails now, ever again, or shaving her legs.

The T600 porter gave her the slightest nod of acknowledgement and recognition, which she returned, and then he moved off . He left her under bright Theatre lights.

Feeling the edge of pain and fear through the Diamorphine Sarah shivered and used all her strength to turn head and neck to her right .

There was a girl, maybe eight years old, on the trolly alongside her . The girl was awake, but like Sarah, she was drowsy from her morphine drip. The girl's head was hairless and she had blue eyes- no eyebrows.

Except for her face, she was covered by a green surgical sheet.

Sarah winked . The little girl smiled back and moved to make herself more comfortable and so she could lie on her side look at Sarah Connor some more.

Under the sheet Sarah saw the lower half of the girl's body was missing from her hips- down. Sarah breathed the word "Hi" and turned her head to rest on the pillow.

The ceiling swam down at Sarah . Above, everything flexed and blurred like it was reflecting from a continually bending metal sheet . The Machine Anaesthetist and Surgeon peered down at her through a shimmering, flexing river of light.

They'd already set behavioural parameters to put Sarah Connor most at ease with them. She was a fighter and would despise pity.

"So we finally get to put Sarah Connor down, huh."

Sarah bared her teeth into a grin.

"Come on Sarah, respect for everything, but you've got to give us that one."

The Surgeon turned his back to Sarah so she couldn't see what he was doing . He imaged his opening schedule and procedure and did his final checks. As he did, his hands and fingers melded into a range of specialist polymetic cutting tools and opening devices.

"You guys, " Sarah coughed- "When I wake up -no cellulite, no stretch marks that's the deal right?"

"That's the deal, No cellulite No stretch marks . Say maybe you could sort this out for us Sarah? Me and my colleague here, we think you said you wanted to look- what age was it again , when you get out of the Amnio-Tank ?- Sixty five ?"

"Hey come on that is not funny. "We agreed i looked thirty five "

"Good job we checked with you then. " He paused to assess her response. Her stats stated stable.

" I'll do you a deal sarah : Maybe, if you don't try and slay me or this guy here before you go under, just maybe, I'll see if can knock a few more years off thirty five as well, huh."

At that point under the sheet , The Mother Of Salvation gave The Surgeon the Holy Finger.

"You ready Connor?" The Anaesthetist asked as he rechecked the plastic cannula taped to her arm. It was linked to the second infusion drip. Then he opened the valve . When he did , ten thousand painless needlepoints of euphoric cold buffeted through Sarah's veins , it felt like she was falling out of the sky.

"Here we go Sarah. Safe journey. Counting down, from twelve, eleven,.."

Sarah made it to minus one and then ...

... there was no pain. As if nothing had happened , Sarah Connor woke up with the distant sense of floating in warm darkness, it was as if it was gently lapping against her. An intense , deep, still peace settled in and around her . For the first time in her life she felt safe and really didn't want to try and move,but-

Why couldn't she see?

Why couldn't she move her arms or legs?

She tried to remember.

Then Sarah heard a young girls voice.

"Sarah, "

"Sarah, can you hear me?"

"Sarah you've had your operation, please don't try to move. The cancer is gone."

"Who are you?"

"My name's Jodie. I was on the trolly in Theatre and you winked at me and said Hi . I've had my operation too ."

"Where are you Jodie?"

" I'm in the next tank along from you . I'm glad I'm with you Sarah."

"What operation did you have Jodie?"

"This is my second operation. I've had full Polymetic Endo. That's like an Endo that's going to grow with me. Right now I'm bonding my new organic layer to my new legs and lower back . You're growing your new organic layer too".

"Why can't I move?"

"It's like being under anaesthetic. Don't try. All the sensor and motor systems are locked "Jodie paused and thought of the best thing to say to Sarah. . "They think we might freak and break sides of the tank . "

"Am I breathing?"

Jodie giggled. "Of course we're not breathing Sarah, we don't need to anymore. Don't worry it wont be for too long. When you get out its going to hurt a bit as well, and everything's going to be too loud the light's going to be bright. You'll have to learn to use the combat gimbals at first, that's really hard. But the gimbals go off eventually and you'll be able to do everything for yourself without them."

"Does it hurt you yet Jodie ?"

"No not yet. It does later when all the nerves and sensor plates start linking up with Metal. It's like toothache and you want to twitch all the time and you can't move. But we can GI through of most of it. "

"You must be a very brave girl ."

"I'm not scared of anything" came the eight year old voice "I'm a T1000I now. We don't get scared."

Sarah realised had never been able to listen as carefully to a child's voice before and analyse it in this way. The nature of children doesn't change , she reflected, our species evolves and everything we are gets moved up another level. There were traces of fear, maybe a more analytical set of apprehensions, but still fear recognisable in Jodie's voice.

So, lets see if the old reverse psychology still works.

"We'll Jodie, I'm like you and I guess I'm a bit scared right now."

"Don't worry Sarah, I'm here , I wont leave you and I will protect you."

"Thank you Jodie, that makes me feel better. Jodie: Why can't I see anything?"

"You can, it takes time to get used to it. Look in the top right hand corner, it should be in front of you."

A white arrow appeared in the darkness

"What is it ?"

It's like the cursor on the old computers. You don't have to use it, you can image in anything you want, but we all thought you might find this easier at first. Try moving it around.

What is this! It's ...?- ( it was infinite , and ,when you perceive it for the first time, with a new sense and set of perceptions it is so incredibly intricate and beautiful. Sarah now comprehended both in terms of mathematical infinity ,and intuitively as No-Thing)

"Your HUD's patched patched into The Com, The TechCom Sarah, Where do you want to see?"

* * *

In the darkness, inside Sarah's Amnio Tank ,something resembling a many armed spider crab was rapidly circling two upright suspended human forms. It had no need for light because it operated better in the dark, feeling out the millions of of electrical sensors and motor plates it was connecting the living film of tissue to .

It was finding and stripping healthy organic tissue from the still live carcass of the old Sarah Connor and weaving it together into Polymetic Microthread Fibre . It was snipping Microthread fibre into lengths and planting them into sensor and motor roots in the receptive surface of her Coltan and Polymetic Alloy Combat Chassis . Clusters of other specialist cells will develop around the living fibre stands , feeding off the fluids in the tank. From this her full organic layer would grow.

As she requested, there would be no cellulite on her thighs. No stretch marks on her abdomen, but out of respect for the memory of a fallen T100, she had asked the scars front back her shoulder to be remodelled exactly as they had been.

Everything that had been Sarah Connor, some would say her soul, had already been mapped , transferred and was now rehoused in her neural net. Micro- Polymetics had entered through the areas cut out of her skull, identified each individual brain cell , glowed white and cell by cell, subdivided and replaced what they had found.

* * *

Some readers will argue this Organic- Coltan and Polymetic creation is just a complex facsimile of Sarah Connor and not her original essence .

Well, I'll let you decide:

Sometime, and I won't tell you when,- There was the rattle of gunfire and the zap of Plasma HiCharge .Thick smoke will be pouring down the corridors, she'll shoulder a MK3 Hi-Plasma rifle and scan the area in front of her. Then Sarah Connor will shout back to T- Bone, ", you get these kids out Kyle and you run, do you hear me soldier run. Now ! ."

A terrorist cell fronted by Skynet's last weapon had already reached the far end of Hanger-School Corridors . Blast Doors were closing behind her. From the start of her tracking, Sarah had determined the Grey's would be easy, but "whatever the fuck that new Metal-shit was, it was going to have come through her first.. "

She imaged the contents her rucksack- she'd never really trusted the new EMP Charges. Her sack was full of good, old fashioned C4 she'd been saving up on the sly, just in case. Her Combat Systems checked on and flashed red.

This was going to be Her , and It

(_Holy Mother or not, we know ( thankfully) she hoarded banned munitions , and frequently used late twentieth century colloquialisms in conditions such as these. So for accuracy ,such things will be recorded_.)


	5. Chapter 5

_ I hope you like this. There is a story within a story here. It examines how John and Cameron begin to sort out where they stand in their relationship for the time being . It also hints at Dereks reason for being there in family unit._

* * *

John, Cameron and Jadey cut over Spinney Hill. It was a new plantation of chest-high Pinyon pines, between Kit Carson Estate and Sawmill Lane . When the path narrowed in between the trees Jadey zigzagged along in front of them . She kept stopping and waiting for Cameron. John noticed Cameron stepping over and around things. it was like watching her effortlessly perform a contemporary ballet routine or a stylised martial art

" What are you doing?" he asked.

They stopped walking and she drew next to him, lightly pressing the side of her body against his. Through his coat could feel the warmth of her hip then her shoulder. It seemed natural for her to do this.

The area in front of them lit up in pale blue light. They leaned forward together to get a closer look at what was in the branches of the small pine tree in front of them. As they did , strands of Cameron's hair brushed against the side of his face.

A large brown and white spider was sitting at the edge of its new web . A thick web-anchor thread raked down between the web and the ground.

"If I wanted to track you and you were out of my audio range , one thing I could scan for are lines of broken webs. Also You should realise, some trip-wires are not going to much thicker than this in the future.

Cameron thought for a moment , she needs him to start to understand this aspect of herself :

"And, I really can't see the point of me damaging their webs either, if I don't have to. There's no reason for me to harm anything out here unnecessarily."

John very gently tested the thread. It was a feat of biological engineering , the equivalence of a five hundred foot high self adhering suspension cable flexed but didn't break to his touch. John felt her hand lightly run over his shoulder then she was moving off.

John Connor was so full of questions. When they were walking down the wide steps from Spinney Hill to the open field, John plucked up the courage to ask, he had to.

"Cameron", . "You know in the future, you and me, we're married right?"

"Uhm yeh", Cameron was listening intently to a small mammal skittering around inside a thorn bush and she was tying to get an accurate thermal lock to identify it. She was also modelling a 3D topography around her for Records Update. And, there was this very interesting caterpillar she'd spotted on the underside of a pine branch . It was the laval stage of a south-western Pine Tip Moth. She was bending down to look and John was rustling around her wanting to ask questions.

John almost stuttered. "How do we, like deal with that?

"What now , you mean?" Cameron determined the caterpillar was almost entering its pupa stage. She was projecting the sequence of numbers required for it make its transformation. All organic life has an underlying sequence, and numerical base. . Over the following nights she would try to locate more of these caterpillars and check out the accuracy of her projections. She straightened up and looked at John . Then she read him. He was like any normal teenage boy, and right now he emitted a recognisable range of electrical impulses hormones and pheromone. When it came to reading his data Cameron was like a shark, only many times more receptive.

Cameron walked up to John and stood in front of him. She placed her head on his shoulder. Tentatively John reached out and held her, when he did she wrapped her arms around his back and gently drew him to her. After a while they broke apart and she stood inches away from his face and held his gaze for a long time. Then she stepped back and looked in the direction of the caterpillar on the branch . Her fingers trailed down to find Jadey's head at her finger tips. She seemed to think for a while.

"This is how I deal with it. I think it is possibly easier to explain what this is not. I was examining that Pine Tip caterpillar down there. You know why moths fly into light bulbs, get their wings broken and burn themselves on the hot glass?

John shook his head. "Not really."

It's because moths evolved to use the moon as their fixed point of reference so they can navigate. Artificial lighting has only been around a very small amount of time compared to the whole history of their development so the moths don't get what it is. They are orientated to fly at a particular tangent to the moon. This enables them calculate their location. As they were evolving, the moon was always the brightest , single object in the night sky. When they see a light bulb they automatically mistake it for the moon because its now the brightest object in their field of vision . Their problem is, a light bulb is so much smaller and nearer than the moon, hence their bearing to the tangent is recalculated to match the light bulb's size and on the basis of this new calculation they fly close around it and into it and damage and burn themselves."

John looked Cameron and tried to grasp what she was getting at. " I don't get what you're trying to say."

"That's' because I haven't finished explaining"

John swallowed.

"Earlier you accused me of using 'this' to get close to you."

"John I understand how you work. I scan and read you one thousand three hundred and eighty times a second in non-combat situations . At many levels I know you better than you do yourself. Right now you are feeling attracted to what you think I am. "This"- I was designed to make human males feel desire, sometimes sexual urges . You know what? One use Skynet, intended for me? It intended for me to infiltrate places like Century Work Camp, or Base . I was intended to exchange sexual favours for information, set up jealousies and conflicts, to elicit trust , and then kill . "

John said nothing, he knew when to listen, and listen well.

"Do you understand John ? I want you to not see the false light . You and I will know each other John Connor, right down to the core of our beings. But you have to develop an understanding about me and learn about me first , and accept what I am, or it won't be worth anything. "

John looked down to the ground, he hadn't meant to communicate any overt " desire" , but then again it's impossible to conceal what can be normally concealed , from female terminator. This was kind of embarrassing and complex.

Cameron sensed what he was feeling, he'd done nothing other than be a normal human teenage male. "Here goes", for some reason the human phrase came to mind.

"You want to know how much I love you John?"

" Imagine this. My squad go on general reccon. I enter what was left of New Mexico State University Cultural Collections Department . Whilst Im in there, I incidentally manage to salvage four matching Samurai Saki cups made in 1656. Someone valued them enough to put them in a wooden box as the bomb fell. I found it under the rubble.

"The cups depict the seasons. One has a Heron standing on one leg in the snow. It has snow covering its shoulders. I wrap the cups up, and on our exit our squad end up in a minor fire fight . A few Greys are throwing ordnance and everything at us. My squad run between collapsing buildings and get out. Eventually I get my cups back to Base in one piece and put them on my shelf in the small area that is my personal space in our quarters. I instruct you not to touch them . I like my Saki cups . You know you accidentally break things."

"One morning I come in at 5.25 Am after having been On Patrol for sixteen hours and find you and some of the visiting 128 Command structure sprawled out in our quarters. T- Bone is sitting there guarding you all. To me he looks guilty. You have drunk an entire plastic container of Still between you. T-Bone very quietly gets up and leaves the room. There are three Saki cups on the table and my Heron Cup is in pieces in the trash. There is even a note in the trash to yourself saying "Do not use these cups". There's also some very tatty pieces of torn paper in there well. They had Japanese writing on them. They are now covered in MRE gravy. Do you know they were- They were original Haiku written by Basho as a gift for the owner of the cups in return for a night's hospitality. There was another typewritten note explaining these cups and poems were a gift to the New Mexico University from a University Nagasaki, they were exchanged on August 9 1981, as a gesture of humanity on the Anniversary of the Atomic Bomb."

"So what do I do John standing there looking at this mess in our Quarters? I make the loudest noise I can without bursting human eardrums and within a few seconds there's only you left in the room. I inform you I'm not going to speak to you for a week unless it is regarding professional matters. "

"John we manage a whole week like that , because you know precisely what I really feel about you, and at the end of the week, you promise to respect my possessions and we make up. When we make up as always, you tell me there has never been anyone else, there couldn't be. You see- unlike human females, I will know without any doubt that is the truth. You are genuinely sorry for breaking my cup, and your fidelity is not because you have ever been afraid of my response . I have no inhibitions or jealousies in these matters. You are The General, you could have any woman you want, but you choose to be with me."

Suddenly a world of otherwise unimaginable possibility opened up inside John's mind. This was incredible. He tried to put the idea of Cameron , no inhibitions out of his mind. He tried to change the subject.

Cameron. John had been thinking. "You know your explaining , does it change the future, even slightly."

"No. Firstly, Deep Time goes where it will. Secondly you are going to be so drunk that night you won't remember me telling you any of this, and the rest of the Command Structure will be daring each other to take down the cups, and you'll just do it anyway."

"That's why you used this as an example?"

"Yes. And it's one of the very few fragments I can recall."

"John, what you have to understand is you're never going to have a normal girlfriend, I'm not sorry for that. No other female can understand what you are, and hey -Connor, Im worth waiting a few months for- Most girls my age couldn't even name the two main nerves running through your lips, let alone render the model of how to most effectively stimulate them. They are the Infraorbital and mental nerves."

"So?"

Cameron smiled" So" - . John experimentally reached out with one hand. He ran his fingers through the hair on the back of her head and her and cautiously leaned towards her.

"John," Cameron murmured , after they gently broke apart , John was now looking into her eyes and didn't want to move . "John , come on, find your feet now soldier. Pick up your rucksack . Time to go ."

* * *

Things were about to get decidedly chaotic in Derek Reese's self- ordered little universe. He was in the kitchen , sitting on his own , elbows on the long table , pressing his palms together and thinking. He was going to lay down the house rules so everyone knew exactly where they stood

He'd allowed Yoshi to fuss over John since he's come in throughout the door. . ( Yoshi fussed over everyone, even the T-8s seemed to appreciate being fussed over by her , but there was always an element ,a kind of steeliness in Yoshi's manner- just so no one ever took advantage.)

John , Derek decided , could eat after they had spoken.

Derek got up opened the living room door and coughed.

"Connor , word please."

Both 'Connor's' were on the settee and turned and looked at him. Derek ignored the female Connor, even though everything except her eyes seemed to have fully acknowledged him .

"Private John Connor , a few words , if you will."

As John got up the telephone rang, again. Cameron moved over to the G3 workstation and began examining the geometric shapes arising from the numbers in the open window. This was interesting .

She went t to the front door, opened it and looked up at the wooden telegraph poles. The telephone wires were crawling with Time Static . She shifted her range and it appeared a focussed stream of Tychons were acting as a binary pulse wave . They were interfering with the Broadband connection . On the screen in the living room, a stream of binary exist / does not exist particles became electrical impulses and rapidly encoded themselves into much more complex numbers. It was rather like an elegant geometric Morse Code.

Cameron manipulated the geometric shapes and patterns these numbers formed, until the shapes tessellated.

She listened , smiled and said "Hi. "She listened some more and spoke quietly so Yoshi could follow the conversation but neither John nor Derek could hear through the Kitchen door.

"Gimbals? I had to learn to use those at first too, they're awkward aren't they...no, they do go off eventually. "

"They're excellent for in combat conditions when there's limited sensory data . That's why they drill you with them now , so it becomes second nature."

"Yeh I know , learning how to get about with them first time out, I wouldn't want to do all that again. "

"What? it makes makes you feel like throwing up when they spin . Just try to keep the little red bar straight, imagine you a focussing to do pull ups on a bar, yeh, the one in the middle of the gimbals sphere , works for me "

"What are you imaging with? - A cursor- no I definitely wouldn't click on any of that . It sounds like it might be an digestive evacuation override, just ask one of the Techs if your not sure. Actually -Yoshi's here, she'll know."

Cameron passed the 'phone to Yoshi and ran a model of the T1000I gimbal sphere.  
That was nasty for a beginner.

* * *

In the kitchen Derek was seated opposite John . He couldn't quite hear the conversation in the other room. He stared at John Connor and waited for him to acknowledge him. John gave the slightest nod.

"The General gave you your housekeeping?"

John placed the envelope with the three thousand, or so , dollars The General had given him , on the table . It was to go towards his board and lodgings. Derek knows it wouldn't be a good idea to allow John to know exactly how wealthy they were at the moment.

Derek had begun explaining, Patrol, Drill and Exercise Schedules. John's stomach ached . He was so hungry he could almost taste the smell of roast chicken in his mouth. He imagined his mother's voice in his head, "stay with it soldier, don't show ever you're tired, or hungry, he'll drag it out, use it against you."

At the end of John's 'briefing' Cameron knocked and walked into the Kitchen. She was holding the house telephone to her ear. She politely said "excuse me" to Derek and carried on talking to the caller.

Derek had more or less finished giving John his resume of Household do's and don'ts, so he put his hands behind his head, and sat back in his chair waiting for Cameron to explain.

Cameron continued " He's hungry and tired, yeh I know- John does eat , doesn't he , but, he's fine, really . I'm good , thank you for asking again . I've got him right here , do you want a word?"

Cameron passed John the phone.

John nearly fell out of his chair.

"John? John- it's me. I'm Ok , I'm out of Theatre. I'm all clear now. I won't be walking much for a few weeks though. I've got to rest, and sleep a lot. It's so peaceful here....

...John, I've got to go , now , some Tech's in my ear , he's telling me we're about to burn out a particle accelerator in Arizona .

"I Love you John."

The line clicked and all John could hear was the white hiss of Time Static, and then the familiar sound of a normal vacant line.

"Oh," Cameron said quietly . "John , you get one call , once a week from your mum."

Behind Derek,Cameron washed her hands, dried them , probed the chicken for bacteria and when she deemed it safe for human consumption, she began making John a very large sandwich.

Cameron visually imaged Reese. When she did , she brought to mind the endless streams of sand that flow over the sterile deserts in the future, the sounds it makes against open door frames, tree stumps and long abandoned vehicles. She images Derek's voice always there, now , and in the future, as if continually whispering temptations and doubts and possibilties in John's ear.


	6. Chapter 6

_This is a gentle look at human and canine infiltration techniques. It's got some violence and non-violence as well . If you like dogs and martial arts this might be for you.  
_

Derek Reese was watching CNN News. Yoshi had taken Cameron and John to their first martial arts class. She was going to sit and watch them training. Derek had got the whole house to himself. For the first time, in as long as he could remember, he was actually on his own.

There were in for two hours of training, so Yoshi taken a Scientific American along to read in the class . Derek had glanced through the magazine ( geek-book ) in the kitchen just before she left. One article jumped out at him.  
_  
Co-workers at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris have carried out an experimental tour de force by catching an individual photon in a box, detecting it in a way that leaves it in the box and then detecting it again. The result is the first demonstration of a "quantum nondemolition" (QND) measurement on a single particle._

He might be a Tech-grunt, but Derek knew his basic history. He'd thought about this and as there was no one else around, he spoke his thoughts out loud

"Yeh, you lot go right ahead , a few short years from now geeks like you will be getting rich faster than anyone can spend it . You'll be working out how to make all those neat little neural nets, and chips, and overnight, we become obsolete , nuked , bombed out, barcoded, chipped and shipped . How about that , hey Jadey?"

Jadey climbed up on the sofa and curled up against Derek with her back pressed into his side.

He stoked the fur on her flank and picked at a piece of grass stem tangled in the hairs under her hind leg . She rolled on her back so he could stroke her tummy.

On The News a Column of Russian Tanks tanks were advancing . The commentator explained "Russian forces were taking control of a strategic ridge within artillery range of the Chechen capital Grozny after mounting an intense tank and artillery barrage against Chechen fighters ."

Five thousand humans had died in that offensive, murdered by their fellow human beings, today.

Derek , shook his head,

", You know these idiots, they never learnt a damn thing, until it was all too late. Judgement Day ,Jadey, at least you didn't get to see that. " Jadey opened one eye and sighed. She wanted to go out On Patrol. She rolled over , sat up and yawned When she did she displayed two rows of perfect Coltan based, Polynamel coated white teeth . Then she flopped down again.

Derek looked Jadey over . She was a perfect , seamless simulacra of ' dog' . At a rational level he knew she required a shielded power cell to run her optics and she'd been kitted- out with a sprung Coltan frame jaw , powered from the same source . Jadey's teeth had polynammel coating which shatters painlessly if she bites too hard into anything, particularly Metal. The white breaks away to reveal rows of razor sharp, serrated Coltan. Her jaw can exert unthinkable sheer force. The Polynammel re-grows again afterwards. The difference, he thought, between Cameron and Jadey is, Cameron knows what she is, Jadey hasn't first idea she isn't a normal dog. Derek can live with that. None of this was ever Jadey's 'fault'.

He felt the lightweight Coltan armour that formed her rib cage, "Hey you know what you are"- he rubbed her head "you're a walking tank with fur. You know that girlie? " Then he went back to stroking her tummy. He tells Jadey stuff when no one else is around. And you should know , Jadey's saved his life on more than one occasion.

With one eye still open , Jadey imaged her new Patrol , She was running through the night, through long rows of pine with Cameron. She was telling Jadey she was a such good girl, she didn't break a single cobweb. Maybe If she dozed a while it would seem like Cameron would be back sooner. She closed her eye and felt the Derek's hand stoking her fur.

A little later Jadey's back legs twitched, and she growled in her sleep: Maybe one night , Cameron would take her out on her old Patrol again . Out to that place miles from base where there are no trees , only desert. There she and Cameron could track Sniper Grey's . They would find one, Cameron would ( sometimes) snap its neck , or punch clean through it, before methodically tearing off its head and limbs . She'd pull out and deactivate the neural interface and tracking devices. They'd conceal the torso of the Sniper- Grey under the sand . Cameron would then scatter a trail of broken body parts to set up the next Kill Zone. On later patrols Jadey could locate them again for Cameron, they would both return, dig up the rotting carcass, and cover themselves to disguise their scent . These were, Jadey's favourite Patrols of all : that's when the just two of them went out into the night, hunting down Sniper-Greys and ReconT600 Metal.

in 1999 Jadey couldn't understand why there were now so many trees, so much grass and where her big desert had gone. It didn't matter, 'her' Cameron would be back , soon.

"...18 and 19" John Connor pressed up, his arm muscles wobbled and burned, his back shook and he looked down at droplets of his own sweat on the varnished floorboards. The floor of the gym reeked of years of dried sweat , , old rank boxing gloves and shin guards. In the background the higher ranking fighters were pounding bags, shadowing in mirrors, flowing combinations of punches and kicks were hitting air, there was the click -click and whoosh of a fast, controlled skipping ropes. He'd learnt tonight, a well co-ordinated Kickboxer could easily keep 200 skips per minute , more than three a second. Learning to skip he'd managed thirty seven before the beginners minute was up and the trainer told them to get down on the floor and begin circuit and stretching.

"Keep your back straight John , hold it there, and come on now big push make it to twenty, now that's good! Class roll over. Sit ups and one and two, come on ."Ten unranked students rolled onto their backs and stared at the ceiling waiting for count.

Cameron found herself posed with a completely new set of problems. She had taken in a litre of electrolyte so she seemed to be sweating. At Fifteen press-ups she had stopped pushing up and taken her weight on her knees. She'd blown her hair out of her eyes from the corner of her lip and made a "this is hard "expression to the girl-partner in front of her who was also resting up. She knew the girl's name becase it was on the gold necklace she'd taken off before training.

When the trainer said sit-us Cameron whispered, "this is so harsh. "

Cameron and Chrisse did five sit ups and fell on their backs.

" I came with my boyfriend "Cameron explained, " I've done some dance but nothing like this . If it gets any worse I swear to god he's doing ballet next week."

Chrisse looked over at John struggling on sit up on sixteen. No one would take John for a fighter unless they knew him, so Chrisse said, "he's cute."

Then she asked, "Who's the slow guy?"

Cameron tilted her head . She looked around. There was an boy, maybe the same age as them . He had an orange sash but he didn't seem to operate at the same level as the other boxers. Then Cameron noticed his eyes. He was Downs Syndrome.

Cameron said nothing. All humans appear relatively physically slow, and few could keep pace with her mentally , so the difference between most humans and the Down's Syndrome boy was negligible. She genuinely couldn't comprehend the nature of the question. When the sit-ups finished, to change the subject , Cameron looked up at the ceiling and groaned. They had been informed it was crunches next.

* * *

They class have must have seen release of Fight Club, because at the end of circuit and streaching the trainer shouted "the rule of this class is", and the class replied "if you train here everyone must spar". It was light contact for beginners , as well.

Yoshi put down her scientific journal and began watching with interest. If Cameron could do this it would be one peak moment of Yoshi's work. Under her breath Yoshi whispered: " Come on Cameron, come on now, show me what you can do." It was halfway to being a prayer.

Cameron made eye contact , and indicated she wanted to spar with the Downs boy, Steven. Cameron looked exactly like a well trained ballet student in a Kickboxing class for her first time. No fighting technique, the ability to move with grace and purpose, ineffectual stylised aggression. Steven, put a few combinations together, and if you really knew what you were looking for Cameron presented targets for him to hit. He punched out a combination, which wasn't aimed to hurt her in any way , it lightly contacted on her shoulder. She made couple of high balletic kicks and allowed him time to step to the side . She smiled, then threw a soft , slow cross so he could move, out of the way. The trainer shouted, "Stevie, keep moving,if you stand still that's when you get hit, Nice cross Cameron, but keep that head down, keep your gloves up."

John was sparring with Jake , one of the high ranked fighters. He was going really easy on John, but to John kicks and punches were real enough. Right now John had so much adrenaline flowing through him he wouldn't feel them. They would bruise lightly and tone muscle. They felt like cushioned blasts of compressed air and when a big turning kick contacted with John the breath was knocked out of his lungs . The experienced fighter was using as little energy as possible, he had John going round in this big circle. He kept him moving all the time. The trained fighter was teaching John , moving you around like this is how an efficient r fighter will work you out, burn your energy and wear you down, then pick you off.

Last round it was Cameron's turn with Jake. They touched gloves and Jake danced waay from her. He was letting Cameron make the ineffectual ballet style kicks at him . Jake stepped in, threw a flurry of light punches, each one lightly contacted with their targets - her shoulders and ribs, a gentle one landed on her forehead. The idea is to teach, not to hurt. That's when Cameron became aware of what she had to do. Without him realising , she moved him into a position where his anatomy and musculature automatically wound him up to throw a straight punching right cross. She turned her face to the exact point of contact , and waited what seemed like a long time for the glove to contact...

... with the bridge of her nose.

Yoshi got up, and put her hands to her mouth to disguise what she was really feeling. This was exceptional.

Cameron bent over with head down gloves below her knees. The class stopped and the trainer came over and put his hand on her shoulder. Jake did the same.  
"Are you Ok? Come on, look up ."

Cameron looked up . A thin string of blood and snot dangled from her nose. She wiped it on her sleeve and

* * *

examined it , then she nodded Jake. "I'm Ok". She put her gloves up and the trainer patted her on the back. Cameron carried on sparring with Jake another twenty five seconds until the trainer called time.

At the end of the session, Jake came over and patted her on the back, and the high ranking fighters nodded at John and Cameron, they'd both shown guts . The door to acceptance in their club was now open to them.

* * *

Jadey jumped down off the sofa, and Derek woke up with a start. They'd both been snoring. When he opened his eyes it was still 1999- He let out a sigh of relief. The front door was opening and they were coming in. Derek began brushing traces dog hair of the sofa with his hand . Jadey wasn't really allowed on there . She'd, sneaked back to the kitchen to make it appear she'd been in her basket all evening.

Cameron came straight into the living room. She glanced at the space next to him, and then at him, and maybe she'd given him him the faintest smile before she turned and walked to the hall . She knew Derek Reese, self professed detester of all things Metal related, had just spent his quiet evening in, watching TV, fussing and grooming her Coltan-organic hybrid Search and Destroy Attack dog.

Derek, she reflected was complicated, no , in colloquial terms , he was just 'freakin weird at times'.

* * *

"John, John" Cameron shouted up the stairs from the hall, "don't you even think about it", Cameron was climbing the stairs, " I spend three minutes in that shower and you take up to half an hour in there."

"So?"

"So, that was the point at which you lost the debate and why I get first shower."

"I didn't loose the debate, it's on hold"

"Well you don't hold it in my shower- Connor , don't you even dare go near that bathroom door"

There was laughter, and it sounded like towel had been flicked and contacted with a human back. Derek heard John's retreating footsteps on the landing and his bedroom door closing.

They'd been bickering over this point for hours during the week. The pair of them seemed to enjoy it.


	7. Chapter 7

_Hi. You know I like playing with this story, introducing and developing new characters. If you have read FI Pt. 1, You might remember that hanger -full of kids. Here's what happens a few years on, when they start to develop . I thought it would be fun to see how 'Rain', an eight year old terminator, would manage in 1999. I'm genuinely not sure if she should be allowed to kick Metal ass , or use her intuition and cunning to beat the T8 that's been tracking her since her arrival. Maybe she should use both . Please note this is not a story for younger children. This is when the mayhem really starts._

_Tell me what you think would be Rain's best course of action and if you like her character._

The day Rain went missing the Techs had been upgrading the TDA systems . As usual, the entire labyrinthine maze of tunnels under The Base was absolutely out of bounds, to anyone . The Techs had spent months balancing TDA field stabilisation against expansion rates. If they ever get this wrong, there is a slightest theoretical possibility they could set off a chain reaction . Deep Time would begin to turn itself inside out and start converting all matter in the universe at an exponential rate. As a precaution, when they are testing systems , the Techs put up the Do Not Enter signs around the TDA Centre. Putting up a sign that reads Danger is a waste of time when you have a large number of small T1000I's running around- they really don't get signs like this.

On the day of the testing, most of Rain's peer group had squeezed along the inside of the old silo ventilation ducts. When they came to the square shaft over the TDA Centre they all crouched around the ledge and dared Rain to drop down out of the vents, which only small terminators can fit through. Her rite of passage was to run down these highly out-of-bounds corridor adjacent to the TDA centre, get to the far side of No.7 corridor and back again, before a full Time Sweep localised and passed through the what had been the previous 'containment' wall.

Rain is a perfect gymnast. She can easily accelerate up to 70 Kph and her proprioceptive stems are set up so, with the right momentum behind her , she can corkscrew rolling 360, springing off the walls and ceiling . Most of the kids watching in the vents had done this themselves . They all calculated Rain could make it to the far wall and back again, without the Techs even detecting they were up there. Time Static y trashed-out their tracking systems .

With the other kids watching out of the grilles , Rain climbed down B Shaft, slipped down the narrow duct , hit the floor running, taking off like a Tomahawk missile. Halfway along she rolled up the wall to avoid the emerging sphere , tracking exactly thirty three degrees across the ceiling.

At that moment Deep Time , did what we now understand it does : it consciously decided to place her . The sphere expanded , and in a crackling-blue twinkling of an eye, the corridor was empty and Rain was falling back through time , bouncing her onto the back of a disused car lot , Albuquerque , December, 1999.

Inside the vortex, Rain's Combat systems automatically did what they were designed to do in a adult system- they engaged. The Sentient interface that was Rains self awareness was imaging the face of The Holy Mother . She was going to go absolutely 'Hi- Charge' when She found out where Rain was.

* * *

Agent Ellsion sat down opposite a bedraggled eight year old girl and examined her . She had pale blue eyes, short cropped brownish hair She didn't appear to be of any recognisable nationality, more of a mix of all of them. After forensics had dabbed at her skin and scraped under her nails, they'd allowed her wash her hands and face - there was still a tidemark of dirt around her neck and hairline.

The little girl didn't hold eye contact . Instead, she made out she was intently watching the turning spools on the tape recorder . Ellison put his hand to his mouth and contemplated.

The child had been in police custody for over eight hours . So far she had been refusing to even talk , let alone tell anyone her name. She had a few sips of water but rejected any food. Even though a bed had to be legally provided for a minor, she hadn't slept.

When any of the interviewing officers, social workers or psychologists asked her a question she tilted her head to one side listened intently but scowled at them .

The gathering of psychologists and social workers in the next room suggested the girl might be high end autistic, Asperger's . That might explain why the Connor network had kidnapped and used her. Why they'd shoved her in front of security cameras and driven her around in a stolen car. The media coverage alone served to reinforce Connor's end of days sect delusional belief systems. This was Sarah Connor's MO : she manipulated hardcore ex-vets into believing her psychotic delusions and every so many years, all hell broke loose this side of the border. Then Connor went back to ground. Maybe John Connor had outgrown Sarah's apocalyptic fantasies . Maybe this little girl was his replacement and their new "Messiah". If that was the case- then God help this child

Ellison smiled, and waited a few moments before speaking: "OK you're what we call a Jane Doe . You know why that is?"

A pair of blue eyes glanced up at him, She'd read his badge when he came into the cell . Her systems reprocessed the information to make sure. It was the equivalent of cybernetic double take. James Ellison was in the First Chapter of Sarah . He was one of the early believers. But not yet . Right now he was FBI and this was getting very serious.

To Ellison's surprise Rain nodded.

"So Janie Doe Lets have a look at the file, shall we. I have to say I'm having trouble making any sense what's going on here, maybe you can help sort me this out? You ready?"

"Monday, Second of December two thirty two AM you're become a blip on my FBI radar , according to the CCTV, before it goes off, you apparently break into Billycats clothing and toy store, and you're in your birthday suit . You go on to steal one pair of children's size combat trousers, one black tee shirt, one black Gortex jacket , one pair of black socks, one pair of black gortex children's boots, two pairs of underpants and a big strong rucksack. Oh and One children's sized black peaked hat. You take the change out of the till .Hm, Ellison chuckles deep , you're not exactly your average Kindergarten material are you. I mean I've got two nieces and last year the eight year old wanted My Little Pony . Say, Do you know what My Little Pony is ?"

Rain looked at the tape spools going 'round. She scrunched her lips together and shook her head. She genuinely didn't have a clue. Where she came from, equine life forms in the Northern hemisphere were , as far as anyone had determined, extinct. She'd certainly never played with one.

Very carefully James placed an A4 photograph on the table. Upside down to her on the desktop was a black and white image of a large man in a leather Jacket, wearing dark shades. Ellsion examined Rain carefully, nothing registered in her expression.

"Monday 3.47 Am . John James, Specialist Gun Shop. Security cams go off . The back door is forced open the silent alarm fails to ring down to APD . One used Benelli 40 , also know as an M1014, automatic folding shotgun and one hundred rounds of high power twelve gauge , one Glock 17 three nineteen round magazine, again one hundred, this time .45 rounds. One Tazar and car charger. Now, they all go missing. So I guess we now know what the big rucksack was for. Now that's got to be heavy for an eight year old girl to walk around with . I've got to say looking at you ,I'm having trouble believing you did all this on your own."

Rain shrugged. The weapons had been the best choice out of the gun shop. It wasn't her fault Yoshi had built the Sentience Systems around a Core of original T8 Combat and other 'interaction' programmes. When you are eight year old Evolving T and in extreme danger everything defaults to Core . The problem is no one had envisaged an eight year old terminator having to fend for herself in 1999. Combat programmes had automatically selected the weapons for her. Following the suggested standard 1. 2 Escape And Evasion Strategy.

Ellison continued: "At this point, me an my colleagues are thinking , maybe we've got this little girl hunting elephants downtown ." Ellison smiled like it was a joke and moved the photograph over nine degrees nearer into her field of vision." Between you and Janie Doe I don't think you'd ever want to hurt an elephant, would you?"

Rain gave the slightest shake of her head. She absolutely would never hurt any other sentient life form unless she determined it to be a serious threat to herself and others.

"Monday 4.17. Security cams again., two seconds and they go all white crackling static, but that is you looking up at them in your little black combat hat. Like I say unbelievable Drake Wilkinson's Performance Cars And Auto Tuners. You know you really have studied this stuff . Out of all the cars there , you choose a modified, reinforced Volvo V70 AWD T5, . It got tinted windows and you drive it away . Now this car's like like a tank and it will outrun most of the other stuff on the road. If it cant outrun them , it will probably drive through them."

"So here's the really interesting bit, although the car is reported stolen, the file gets deleted,. The guys at APD don't put out the alert until Mr Wilkinson calls again to see if the cars turned up,because the car owner's on his garage forecourt going crazy at him

"We've now traced the hacker to Coffee 'N' Chox Internet Bar , but someone was in a a real hurry and didn't cover their tracks."

"And you're on camera again here, filling the tank on Mr. D Pizzey's credit card. You tell the nice lady who's at the till it's your dad driving and he's sent you in to pay with his card, you know the number. The lady also tells me there a church donation box for orphanage in New Mexico and you take a twenty dollar bill out of your pocket and put it in the box. She slips you a little cookie bar, " cause" , and I quote. you're "so adorably cute."

Ellison ran his hand over his mouth before he spoke: "See I'm all confused. I've got one little girl, wandering around downtown Alburqurque with no clothes, then she gets dressed up in army gear, raids gun shops and she steals very high performance armoured vehicles. Now, on the other hand this I've got what seems this other really polite, good little girl, who doesn't really want to shoot anything , and she's putting money in a charity box .  
And everyone including Mr. Pizzey who you bumped into , and apologised, says how nice you are. So I'm just not sure what I'm dealing with here. I think what I have got is a good girl, and perhaps some other guys making her do bad stuff. - Do you ever think things like that yourself?"

Rain's systems automatically evaluated Ellison's interrogation technique. It was Classic Text-Read : separate the moral polarities of the human subject, "good side bad side", use one polarity as a bargaining tool for information in exchange for lowered threat and reduced negative stimuli . Most appropriate for an eight year old human in this time.

Just to put the pressure on, Ellison turns the photograph right around so Rain can see all of it. Ellison let the photo come free of its file . Rain looks up at him , she's been trained well, but Ellison thinks can read the slightest trace of fear in her eyes. Without saying a word his expression asked, do you know this man?

Rain nodded.

Ellison spoke quietly :" I'll do you a one- off deal . I'm allowed to do this. We'll take a break, those guys watching through that camera, switch it off and walk away -they need the coffee, you and me talk, about anything we like. How about that? "

Rain nods. He's lying about the camera.

The tape machine goes off. She knows the camera is still running , and recording, but she can fix that. Ellison rests his elbows on the desk and places his hands into a triangle they are like prayer hands. He touches then to his mouth and waits. His features are exactly as described in the First Book Of Sarah. She says nothing.

James crosses his arms and looks to the ceiling. "You know I could be at home watching the X file repeats now , on TV. Does your mummy and daddy ever let you stay up and watch the X-Files sometimes."

Rain has never experienced files beginning with the preface X, nor had she watched TV. She never had parents who let her stay up late, she didn't sleep, she only a few fragments of recall of her mother. Her mother was dead, she died in Century, Rain is what survived.

Rain decided to speak, when she did, it was a clear accent-less voice. James couldn't place it to any particular state or county.

"I haven't watched X files."

James made a big smile and his face lt up. She did speak!

"You going to tell me what I can call you?"

"Rain- you call me Rain " . It was almost a whisper- it didn't matter now. They were running out of time

"Do you live at home Rain ? With your Mummy and daddy?"

Rain shook her head.

"Would you like to call anyone and let them know you are safe?"

"No. "

Then she went back to looking away, almost scowling . Without any pressure James kept a comfortable silence.

Rain knows by 'heart' "Sarah Connor's rule: "In this time , no one is ever safe". Besides all the media coverage, ever since she arrived, an emergency location device had been activated by her Combat Systems . Unlike older children and adults she couldn't switch it off. She wasn't meant to be in Combat at her age, only training . She was giving out a distress signal that any T series or later could pick up within a hundred kilometre radius. In her time the only T's she would come across were friendly ones, ones that played with her and came to retrieve groups of children messing around in the labyrinthine mazes that ran between The Base and the old silos.

The Ts in 1999 weren't evolved, they were the sworn enemy. There was a T8 in and around every major city , in every slice of time up until Judgement Day.

Rain's Combat systems had suggested she prepared herself , drive around and wait for the Enemy T to break cover. Then she could outrun it and choose her ground.

As she'd driven past, a half demolished multi-storey car park had suggested itself to her as an ideal Kill Zone : Lots of leaning slabs , tight turns, and narrow spaces, some clear shots, she was quicker, but it was far stronger. The basic rule slow: it down , then take it out. But she hadn't managed to lure it out before half of APD descended on her and cornered her driving in a big loop around the freeway. The blockade of the freeway was effective, there were two helicopters overhead, and she had not wanted to damage any of the humans, so she got out of the car and surrendered.

All she wanted to do right now was exit this cell, because if she didn't, the Enemy T8 would turn up, tear this place apart , when it found her it would strip her memory , and, Rain knows where John Connor is going to be, because in her, time the war is over  
and everyone knows the stories from the First Book Of Sarah.

Combat systems calculated if she was captured there was a strong possibility of a reconfiguration of the entire balance of Future History. Rains eight year old sentience understood this to mean everything , BIG EVERYTHING was going to be all her fault.

She pointed to the photograph on the desk. Her combat systems were showing her how to prevent oxygen from reaching Ellison's brain and causing him to blackout, then impacting the cell door with her right leg, thus removing it from its frame and hinges, it further suggested following Urban Escape And Evasion Strategy 2.4, via The APD Station Armoury.

It was then Rain, had possibly the most lucid moment of her life , she made a huge decision and that was to override what her automated Combat Systems were suggesting. They were not appropriate to her situation.

Everything went off her HUD. She began to shake, she put her hand to her mouth and began sobbing, real tears streaked down her face.

"He's coming here tonight, he's going to kill me and everyone in this building, I know where he lives, I don't know the name of the road, but I can show you where it is."

Ellison got up, he knows this is no idle threat, this was 1982 repeating itself . He opened the cell door and called for the duty Social Worker. When she came running in , she found Rain standing by her chair apparently hysterical with fear. She walked over and tried to calm her down. As the duty Social worker was saying " Everything's going to be OK Honey, you're safe now, " Rain's acoustics were picking up on Ellison organising SWAT reconnaissance to follow his car.

When the Social Worker let go of Rain and stood by the open cell door to see what was being organised . The Social Worker was already missing her cell phone.

Rain threw herself onto the camp- bed and curled into a foetal position with her back to the Social Worker. The CCTV camera crackled with white static and went off. In case of absolute emergency she had already looked up the telephone number to Red Valley School .

* * *

Cameron walked up to Red Valley reception with Mrs. Darling. Apparently Cameron had a telephone call from her niece. Mrs Darling couldn't really make out what her niece was saying, she was speaking so quietly. It sounded like she was in a hospital or something there was a lot of noise, people running in the background. She had managed to catch her saying Cameron Phillips.

Cameron Picked up the school telephone. She was curious, and said "Hi"

There was a high frequency blast of multilevel information way above the range of human hearing. Whatever was sending it was running on extremely fast interface and processors, even by her standards. It contained amongst ,other things ,the number of the telephone she was ringing from and the surname of the ower. It took a few seconds for Cameron to separate and decipher all the layers.

Cameron appeared to yawn and sent back her reply, again a multi- layered pulse, far above normal audio range. The layers shortened and translated in to contemporary language were as follows.

1. "Don't ever call me General, my name is Cameron."

2. "Don't be scared .I'm not angry with you , yet."

3. "Yes I am bringing Jadey with me."

4. "Whatever happens explain nothing to humans about any of this."

4a. "Keep yourself and them out of its range, keep them driving around the freeway. "

5. "Keep you combat systems on override unless its an absolute emergency. I know its hard but you can , you must do this."

6. "Fast as I can sweetie I promise, I'm coming for you now."

Cameron's face seemed to become emotionless when she looked at Mrs Darling,

"My Aunt's been involved in a minor accident in Albuquerque, I have to go now, and take care of my niece."

Cameron punched out the buttons on her own cell.

"Mum... Aunt Sarah's been involved in an accident. "

"Albuquerque ."

"We've got to go , now. OK fifteen minutes . Bring Jadey"

Cameron went back into the library to wait. She was connected to the internet for her History project . She'd would to have to destroy the log and path of Rain's call then cover her own hacking. She took a deep intake of 'breath' and 'exhaled'. The School Network and 'new' Broadband was so incredibly slow.


End file.
